Sergei Vladimirovich Loznitsa (, , ; born 5 September 1964) is a Ukrainian director of Belarusian origin known for his documentary as well as dramatic films. Biography Loznitsa was born on 5 September 1964 in the city of Baranavichy, in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Later the Loznitsa family moved to Kyiv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, where he completed high school. Loznitsa graduated from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute as a mathematician in 1987. Between 1987 and 1991 he worked at the Institute of Cybernetics, where he developed expert systems, systems of design-making and artificial intelligence. Loznitsa also worked as a translator from Japanese. In 1991 he enrolled at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, in the fictional-film direction department taught by Nana Jorjadze. He graduated with honors in 1997. After completion of his studies Loznitsa began working as a documentary film director in Saint Petersburg in 2000. He and his family moved to Germany in 2001. In 2007, Loznitsa travelled to Canada to participate in the first retrospective of his films at Media City Film Festival, representing his first in person visit to North America. This screening and lecture included many of the director's lesser-known short films focussing on his intimate depictions of the former Soviet Europe, including Halt (2000), Portrait (2002), and Factory (2004). Many of Loznitsa's films had North American premieres at Media City Film Festival, including Blockade (2005), Artel (2006), Revue (2008), The Letter (2012) and others before the director began to gain international prominence with major screenings at TIFF, NYFF and elsewhere. In 2010 his film My Joy was selected for the main competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. His 2012 film In the Fog competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Maidan had its world premiere in a special screening at Cannes in May 2014, a record of the 2013–14 popular protests in Kyiv and their violent suppression. His documentary "Babi Yar. Context" was created with help from Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. On 28 February 2022, Loznitsa resigned from the European Film Academy in response to its statement expressing "solidarity with Ukraine" published days earlier in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In an open letter, Loznitsa condemned the academy for failing "to call a war a war, to condemn barbarity and voice your protest". On 1 March 2022, the academy announced that it would exclude Russian films from its